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India Foundation for the Arts
in collaboration with theKalakriti Archives, Hyderabad

invites applications for

Two Museum Fellowships
Application deadline: February 15, 2017

This IFA initiative is supported by TATA TRUSTS

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) in collaboration with the Kalakriti Archives, Hyderabad invites applications for two museum fellowships, each for a period of 10-12 months. The aim is to support curators, art historians, designers, urban researchers, visual artists and other practitioners to engage with the collection of archival maps at the Kalakriti Archives, Hyderabad.

The intention is to give applicants the opportunity to work with the collection in innovative and original ways and to re-present them through new frameworks. The outcomes could include exhibitions, publications, performances or year-long series of events, which will be presented at the Kalakriti Art Gallery in 2017 - 18. We encourage ideas with strong public engagement.

The Archival and Museum Fellowships initiative of IFA began with the two-fold objective of providing practitioners with an opportunity to generate new, critical and creative approaches to public engagement with collections in archives and museums; and to energise museums as spaces for dialogue and discourse

The two fellowships that IFA is inviting applications for are as follows:

1. For the Collection of Hyderabad City Maps in the Kalakriti Archive:About the Hyderabad Municipal Maps Collection:
A set of 550 maps of Hyderabad are part of the Kalakriti Archive. These maps were commissioned by the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1908 after the devastating floods in the city. The project was undertaken under the supervision of Leonard Munn (1878-1935), an engineer, who was the chief inspector of the mines under the Nizam regime. He was assisted by A F Chinoy and A T Mackenzie, chief engineer from the Public Works Department. The richly detailed maps are precious as they contain minute information such as names of streets, landmarks, and even names of residents. In total 848 maps were created by the Hyderabad municipal survey during 1912-1915 out of which 550 are in the Kalakriti Archive. These maps serve not only as a window to the history of Hyderabad and its localities, but also contain important accounts of the urban development of Hyderabad in the early 20th century.

About the Fellowship:
The fellowship awarded will be for a practitioner to work with the Hyderabad Map Collection. These maps, although extremely pertinent to the city of Hyderabad, are being made public for study and research, for the very first time. The researcher will need to study the collection, enrich its details and translate it into an outcome that could take a variety of formats such as exhibitions, talks, performances, publications, etc. This exercise will also enrich the metadata of the collection of maps for posterity. As this will be the first serious study of these maps, the researcher will be given full credit for his/her findings. The collection also lends itself to comparative studies of the city as it exists today, in comparison to what it was in the early years of the 20th century.

2. For the entire collection of India Archival Maps in the Collection of Kalakriti Archive:About the India Archival Maps Collection:
The Kalakriti Archives - Prshant Lahoti Collection of Maps was instituted to acquire, preserve and interpret the heritage of world civilisations spreading over cultures and continents. At present, over 3000 vintage maps of the Foundation are at the centre of this exercise. The maps in the collection span from the 16th century to the 20th century and are represented through physical maps, political maps, surveillance maps, railway maps, war maps, city maps, regional maps, maps showing natural resources, trade maps, port city maps and colonial maps, covering all major Indian cities, states and regions. A curious set of pilgrimage maps and painted maps are also part of the collection. It is the largest and most representative collection of maps in a private collection in India today.

The collection has been exhibited at the Kochi Biennale in 2014 and in an exhibition titled Cosmology to Cartography at National Museum, New Delhi in 2015. The latter was also accompanied by a fully-fledged catalogue of over 72 objects that were on display. The collection is also on the Google Art Project which is an international platform featuring important museums and collections of the world.

About the Fellowship:
The fellowship awarded will be for a practitioner to curate a series of events, based on selected objects from the entire collection of the Kalakriti Archive. The events could take a variety of forms like talks, seminars, creative writing workshops, performances, and/or exhibitions. The idea is to draw a diverse group of people including adults and children to the collection over a year, and present objects from the collection through a variety of lenses, thus making the archive a platform for dialogue, research, activity and enjoyment.

Applicant profile:
We seek applications from curators, art historians, architects, urban planners, designers and visual artists based in Hyderabad with previous curatorial experience and a strong interest in archival and museum collections. Practitioners who are Indian nationals or have been a resident of India for five or more years are eligible to apply.

Financial assistance and other support:
Each fellowship provides an honorarium of Rs 2,00,000 for the duration of 10 - 12 months. A separate budget will be provided for the final outcome (exhibition, events, etc).

Important dates:
The deadline for receiving applications is February 15, 2017
Shortlisted candidates will be informed by the third week of February 2017
Interviews with shortlisted candidates are expected to take place by the first week of March 2017
The Fellowship will commence from March 15, 2017 for a period of 10-12 months

Application Process:
Your application must include:

A brief description of the project idea you could potentially develop from either of the collections at the Kalakriti Archive. The description should include the vision, approach, process, possible outcomes and public engagements. The intention is to give us an idea of how you would like to approach this project; how you would benefit from this museum fellowship. Please identify aspects of your practice that you think will be honed and further developed during the course of the Fellowship.

A brief description of an earlier project you have been involved with either as a curator, arts practitioner or urban researcher. The description would include the vision, the approach, the processes and the outcomes that have resulted from the project. Please include documentation of the project, which could include 6 to 8 scanned or printed images with titles and date, DVD (max 4 minutes), catalogues, artworks, performances, or reviews.

Your curriculum vitae.

Please email the required documents to suman@indiaifa.org and also post a copy to IFA (to the address below) in an envelope marked ‘IFA & Kalakriti Archival Fellowship’ by February 15, 2017.